Bella Blvd Studio Blog

Layouts On Wednesday + A Video Share

Today is our free-for-all layout sharing day, and we definately have a fun variety of layouts from our designers, along with a mini album share. We have an extra little surprise as well, as designer Jennifer Chapin filmed a video about her process of assembling her album. Kind of exciting, as I'm pretty sure this is the very first video to come to the Bella blog!

“Happy”, by Katherine McElvain.

This was a fun layout to put together. I had long ago seen a layout with a sun made out of scraps and a button center and today recreated it with all sorts of Bella yellow scraps. Going with the piece together a l theme, I also made the title out of a number of different chipboard pieces trying to create a fun, whimsical look at the top of the page.

Supplies:
Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Banana; Sand & Surf: Flying High; Engaged at Last: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Birthday Boy: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Baby Boy: Chipboard Icons; Sweet Celebration: Sugar Cone; Sunshine & Happiness: Chipboard Icons; Spring Flings & Easter Things: Chipboard Icons; Ciao Chip Elements: Clouds; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Saltwater; Button Market: Wood Mix

“Hen’s Night”, by Kim Jeffress.

I am finally getting around to scrapbooking my hens night (similiar to a bachelorette party) from 8 years ago. The colors in the Engaged at Last collection were a perfect match for the colors in my photos. I had several extra photos so I created a little fold out booklet that I added the photos to. You can see it blends in with the Bachelorette Party pattern paper and I tied it with some thin gold ribbon to complete.

Supplies:
Engaged at Last: Bachelorette Party, Bachelor Extras, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures, Chipboard Icons, Flags Bachelorette; Sophisticates: Punch 

"Dance", by Yohko Takiguchi.

I chose the All American Collection for this layout, matching the colors to my son’s T-shirt in the photos. I started by pulling out Scallop paper from Freestyle Sophisticate collection as my background paper. I love this collection because they are versatile. I created a cluster on the right side of the photo using stickers, chipboards and flower from Cute Cuts.

Supplies: 
All American: American Pride, Boom Boom Pow, Seeing Stars, July Sky, Borders And Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Flags: All American Icons; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Saltwater; Birthday Boy: Alpha+Bits Stickers; Designer Tapes: Ice Stripe; Button Market: Red Flowers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; High Five Alpha Stickers: Black-White

“Day In The Life” album, by Jennifer Chapin.

Last week I participated in Day in the Life. It's a great way to document those everyday details that you might not normally include in your scrapbooks. I decided to use a 6"x8" binder album, project life style, to document my day. I finished the cover and the first few pages for my project this week. I've also created a video to show you a bit of my process.

 

Supplies:
Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Scallop, Freestyle Saltwater; Engaged at Last: Bachelorette Party, Bridal Shower, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Love and Marriage: Smokeys in Love, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sand & Surf: Paradise, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Yellow, Blue, White; Miniatures Stickers: Family; Ciao Chip Elements: Trees, Clouds, Stars & Hearts; Sienna Chipboard Alpha: Pickle Juice; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink stripe, Blue Chevron, 12mm Combo; Crochet Hearts: White

Endless Inspiration: Sand & Surf

We hope you're ready to be inspired! We are looking forward to providing you with endless inspiration during these next few weeks, with never-before-seen projects that are being featured in our CHA Winter booth display. Our Design Team has been very busy creating oodles of project ideas with all of the new collections and products, and we are excited to finally share those projects with you!

“Vacation”, by Diane Payne.

When I saw the adorable sand castle pieces in the Sand & Surf collection I knew it would be perfect to document the photo of my son making sand turtles on our trip to Maui.

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Beach Balls, Surfs Up, GPS, Borders, Cute Cuts, Flying High, Miniatures stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Pickle Juice Stripe, Polka Dot Combo; Button Market: Red Flowers, Fruit Punch; Flags: Sand & Surf

“Pool Side”, by Sheri Feypel.

This layout is one of my favorites that I created for CHA! I love the new Sand & Surf collection. The colors are vibrant and playful and pair perfectly with my silly Instagram photo of my son and his friend being funny at the pool. And who knew Feathers would be so fun to add to a project, new obsession coming on, maybe? I'll keep you posted on that. I had a lot of fun adding layers of Designer Tape, Chipboard and stickers to this layout. I added a little banner in the top corner using Chipboard and Miniature Stickers to sort of mock a clothes line. A little side note, I attached my feathers with a few glue dots in case you are wondering how you were going to attach them to your projects cause I was wondering the same :)

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Flying High, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Chipboard Icons, Miniature Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pickle Juice; Designer Tape: Blue Chevron, Orange Dot, Punch Chevron; Feathers: Orange, Gulf; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Punch

“Up And Away”, by Katherine McElvain.

I have been wanting to scrapbook this picture of my daughter's first time getting up on water skies for a while now, and the Sand and Surf line with its colors and arrows was the perfect fit. I wanted the layout to be mostly neutral. with a pop of color to coordinate with the color photo. I added the pink arrow strip and the yellow suns from the borders paper, and some Mcintosh feathers to pick up the color of her life jacket. After I had the layout all put together I realized I didn't have room for journaling, so I wrote the story of the day on one of the black and white photos. And I kept the embellishments simple by adding some clouds and tape.

Supplies:
Sun & Surf: GPS, Borders, Cute Cuts, Surfs Up, Chipboard Icons; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle Saltwater; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Pony; Designer Tape: Ice Stripe; Feathers: McIntosh, Saltwater

"Great Friends" card, by Gretchen McElveen.

Don't you just love all the fun, bright colors in this line!? And I love the flowers in this line too! The biggest flower in the middle is from the sheet of "Just Write Journaling Stickers". I also cut a couple flowers from the "Cute Cuts" sheet. I used a lot of foam adhesive on this card to add some dimension to the flowers and the centers of the flowers. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Borders, Cute Cuts, Paradise, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Miniatures Stickers

“Wish You Were Here” card, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I love to create scenes using Bella patterned paper! Here, I created a beach scene using many different Sand & Surf papers. The flower, sentiment, and arrow are all stamped images form the new Sand & Surf Cling stamp set.

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Under the Coconuts, Beach Balls, GPS, Flying High, Surfs Up, Paradise, Miniatures, Cling Stamp Set; Button Market: Orange Stars

“Go See Do” mini albums, by Malika Kelly.

I wanted to make a mini album using the new Sand & Surf collection to hold our beach holiday pictures. To hold the album together, I used Bella's Designer Tapes and then machine stitched on top to be sure that the tape would stay held down. I absolutely loved the look of the bright colored tapes as the binding, but found that I couldn't add too many bulky embellishments. Instead of lots of chipboard and buttons, I embellished with Designer Tapes to make a pocket, hold pictures down, make banners tabs and borders. I was still able to add the odd chipboard pieces without the mini album getting too big. I love the end result and encourage you to try binding something with Bella's Designer Tapes!

 

Supplies:
Sand & Surf: Paradise, Surf's Up, Under the Coconuts, Flying High, Beach Balls, GPS, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures, Chipboard Icons; Freestyle Sophisticates: Freestyle McIntosh; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry,Pickle Juice, Punch; High Five Alpha Stickers: Gulf, Piggy-Punch, Brown-Cream; Designer Tape: Hot Pink Dot Tape, Yellow Chevron, Teal Stripe, Pickle Juice Chevron, Pony Dot, Chevron Combo; Flags: Sand & Surf; Crochet Flowers: Dahlia; Crochet Hearts: Saltwater

Endless Inspiration: Love And Marriage Altered Projects

We hope you're ready to be inspired! We are looking forward to providing you with endless inspiration during these next few weeks, with never-before-seen projects that are being featured in our CHA Winter booth display. Our Design Team has been very busy creating oodles of project ideas with all of the new collections and products, and we are excited to finally share those projects with you!

Mint To Be Favors, by Laurie Schmidlin.

Every wedding needs party favors, and with Bella's new Love & Marriage collection they have never been easier to make! Not only were these fun to make, but they were fast (making them perfect to make in large quantities)! I covered Lifesaver Mint rolls with various papers and tied a bit of string around them. The pail is decorated using some Cardstock Stickers, Alphabet Stickers, and some new Gray Chevron Designer Tape. For the finishing touch, I added a paper flower and some ribbon.

Supplies:
Love And Marriage: Vows, Smokeys In Love, Cake Testing, May Eighteenth, Turner Hall Ballroom, Esther Flemming Floral, Cute Cuts, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, The Wedding Party Miniature Stickers; Designer Tape: Gray Chevron

Wedding Bouquet, by Laurie Schmidlin.

The beautiful papers in this collection lend themselves nicely to paper flowers. And when I think of flowers, I think of a wedding bouquet! To create this bouquet, I started with a Styrofoam ball and covered it with punched out vellum flowers (I didn't want any of the Styrofoam showing). I then created a lot of paper flowers (in different sizes) using my Silhouette cutting machine. After I rolled and glued each flower I added glitter to the center of each flower. To adhere the flowers to the Styrofoam ball, I used hot glue and white stick pins. The base of the bouquet is actually several bamboo sticks (hot glued into the Styrofoam ball) that I covered with white silk ribbon.

Supplies:
Love And Marriage: Turner Hall Ballroom, May Eighteenth, Cake Testing, Esther Flemming Floral, Cute Cuts

Wedding Cake, by Laurie Schmidlin.

To create this three tiered cake, I started by creating three round "boxes" in different sizes. I used the three neutral prints in the Love And Marriage Collection. I then created lots of paper flowers and leaves using my Silhouette Cameo. Once I rolled and glued the flowers, I added chunky glitter to the centers. Not only does it hide the glue, but sparkly flowers are just better!

Supplies:
Love And Marriage: Vows, Smokeys In Love, Cake Tasting, Cute Cuts, Esther Flemming Floral, Turner Hall Ballroom

“I Do Mini Album”, by Shellye McDaniel.

A mini album is the perfect palette for small, favorite photos. But don't forget the journaling! Just Write Journaling Stickers aren't just for scrapbook pages, so think of them when preparing your album pages, even if you need to trim them down a bit. For this album I used a very inexpensive chipboard 'flower' shaped album found at Michael's. 

After tracing and trimming out the papers to fit the flower shape, I then reached for the perfect sized jar lid for the inset of each page. If you have a large enough template or circle cutter, you may wish to use that instead. 

Because this is a flip-up style album, I had to plan carefully of how to arrange each page's embellishments. Too many thick areas can cause the pages not to lay right.

After dressing each page I went back and added a border of baker's twine around the edge of each page. I love the way it hides the uneveness of the cuts made to the paper, as well as the plain, grey chipboard. For this, I've found that a ballpoint tip glue pen works best! Finally, I added a large ring to the top and tied on a simple satin ribbon.

Supplies:
Love And Marriage: Vows, Smokeys In Love, Cake Tasting, May Eighteenth, Cute Cuts, Turner Ballroom, Esther Fleming Floral, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Engaged At Last: Engagement Chipboard Icons; Designer Tape: Yellow Chevron, Gray Chevron; Crochet Hearts: Pickle Juice, Punch; Flags: Engagement; Button Market: Hot Pink Flowers, Pink Flowers; Crochet Flowers: Poppy, Dahlia

Endless Inspiration: Engaged At Last Altered Projects

We hope you're ready to be inspired! We are looking forward to providing you with endless inspiration during these next few weeks, with never-before-seen projects that are being featured in our CHA Winter booth display. Our Design Team has been very busy creating oodles of project ideas with all of the new collections and products, and we are excited to finally share those projects with you!

Treat Containers, by Shellye McDaniel.

These little treat containers have the WOW factor, without all of the fuss!  AND you can make them as large or as small as you'd like.

For this lot of favors, I began with a 6x6 square of paper for each. Using a quick-drying glue or heavy adhesive, glue two ends together; allow to dry. Next, machine stitch, glue, or staple the bottom end together. 

After filling the inside you will want to close the top so that it is creased opposite of the bottom (I machine stitched these, but a hole punch with ribbon tied through also works beautifully). There are so many cute way to decorate the fronts of these! I cut strips of papers and sentiments from the Bachelorette Extras Paper and layered them with a punched heart and doily die-cut. 

For the front of the wire basket, I hand-cut a heart and then backed it with a medium-weight chipboard. After embellishing, I tied it onto the basket with satin ribbons. Add matching shredded paper to the bottom and then arrange the favors inside! 

Supplies:
Engaged At Last: He Proposed, Bridal Shower, Bachelorette Party, Bachelorette Extras, Alpha+Bits Stickers; Crochet Flowers: Juniper; Crochet Hearts: Pickle Juice

“Let's Party” Altered Dressform, by Shellye McDaniel.

All shapes and sizes of metal dressforms are readily available and fun to transform. 

For the skirt, I started with a sheet of 12x12 "He Proposed" paper that I cut in half to measure 6x12. I then scored each piece (lengthwise) at 1/2" increments. Fan fold both 6x12 pieces and attach together at one end. At the bottom, use a corner-rounding punch on every-other fold (if desired).

Next, use a 1/8" hole punch to create holes at the top folds. Thread a piece of baker's twine or crochet thread through the holes and then tie around the base of the dressform. Pull the tension until the desired 'gathering' of the skirt is formed. 

For the top, I simply criss-crossed two 1" wide strips of paper and tucked them behind the 'waistband' of the dress. I thought that a banner would be fitting for a bridal shower, so I created one that announces "Bachelorette Party Girls Only" I used a rolled flower die for the lei of flowers around the bodice. In finishing, I added a couple of the fun Feathers to the front and back, as well as a cute stick pin and satin bow. 

Supplies:
Engaged At Last: He Proposed, Bridal Shower, Bachelorette Extras; Feathers: Punch; Flags: Bachelorette

S&S Altered Plaque, by Shellye McDaniel.

A sweet display that doubles as a gift for the bride-to-be! I found this gorgeous, curvy wooden plaque at Michaels. It was already painted white, which made decorating that much easier. I started by tracing the shape onto the Bachelorette Party Paper. In doing so, I wanted to keep the chevron pattern centered, so I made sure that it was lined-up accordingly before I began to trace.

For the top, I had an extra piece of chipboard from a mini album that I used to create the bright background. Again, I fashioned a heart by folding a piece of paper in half and cutting freehand. I cut the same sized heart from a piece of chipboard and machine-stitched the two together. After adding the heart to the center, I embellished the top with the initials of the couple, as well as some other fun items!

Supplies:
Engaged At Last: Bridal Shower, Bachelorette Party, He Proposed, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Engagement Icons; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Frosting; Love & Marriage: Chipboard Icons; Crochet Hearts: Saltwater, Pickle Juice; Button Market: Blues

Engaged Mini Album, by Laurie Schmidlin.

I wanted to create a mini album that would double as a mini scrapbook as well as a place where the Bride to Be could record different parts of the wedding planning process! I started by cutting out page shapes with my Silhouette cutting machine. I used lots of Cardstock Stickers and Miniatures, Chipboard pieces, Designer Tape, and Button Market buttons to embellish the pages. For the front, I added a new Cotton Candy Crochet Heart and an Engagement Flag! The album is approximately 5 3/4" and is bound together using an accordion paper fold.

Supplies:
Engaged At Last: He Proposed, Bridal Shower, Bachelorette Party, Bachelorette Extras, Bachelor Party, Bachelor Extras, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Engagement Chipboard Icons, Bachelor/Ette Chipboard Icons; Flags: Engagement; Crochet Hearts: Cotton Candy; Designer Tape: Gray Dot, Blue Chevron; Button Market: Aqua Flowers, Stars, Outdoor, Text

Mini Album Share

"Dirty Girl 5k" mini album, by Stephanie Hunt. 

I created this Dirty Girl 5k Mini album for my little sister this year for Christmas. Do you remember when Katherine shared her version here on the blog (VIEW HERE)? I was inspired by Katherine and wanted to create one too!

I started with Simple Stories Oh Snap! Mini album.

Because the book ended up pretty full, I stitched a button to this elastic band to help it stay closed.

Throughout the book you’ll see several “constants” I used to help give it a cohesive overall look. Those pieces include the Party Dress (item #453-floral pattern from the Birthday Girl collection), some black and white polka dot washi tape, and the “Celebrate in Style” Birthday Girl/Unity Stamp Set along with random pieces from the Making the Team collection, and sophisticates alphabet stickers, chip and buttons too!

My niece took so many photos that day, so I had plenty to choose from to mix and match between the various sleeves from Simple Stories.

When in doubt I stamped, stamped, stamped. I just love the options with these floral stamps. Here I used a versamark stamp pad and just collaged the flowers to create my own subtle background to the tap cardboard page.

The run itself has several obstacles that are cleverly named … like “just get over it” and “utopian tubes” and “jail break” wall climb. It made for easy details and titles throughout the album.

I did my best to add lots of pink (since the run raises money for breast cancer awareness and research) and pops of colors amongst the muddy, dirty photos.

My sister and I have ran so many miles this year, as we trained for a marathon together that this book captured the fun in all of it---on our way to the marathon and the experiences and memories we made together just in the process of training and getting there.

I added a forward note to Nicky in the beginning and then this one at the very end. If it wasn’t for her I don’t think I would have discovered the journey to finding my passion for running. All the hard work really pays off in the joy, health and fun we have had, and will continue.

the cover and backside of the album is stamped with both versamark and a bit of black staz on. This subtle, yet fun pattern is also a clean option for table books like this one.

And here’s a snapshot of Nicky opening the Christmas present just a couple days ago. Quickly my older sister and the kiddos gathered round to take a look at the mini album, as we all were at the Mud Run together that day.

This is definitely what scrapbooking is all about.

Christmas Mini Album

Today we have a creative Christmas mini album to share with you that is full of pull out pieces to add journaling and messages. The interactive features of this album make it very fun to look through.

"Sights & Sounds Of The Season" mini album, by Jennifer Edwardson.

I have to admit I was super excited when I was asked to create a Christmas mini album as I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had these (2) great slide out chipboard albums in my stash but they were each only (3) pages and I loved the look of the (6) pages together. Perfect for what I had in mind. Our family LOVES music and listens to it all day long all year long, so when Christmas time rolls around the carols are being played morning until night. We all have our favorites and I wanted to capture this into my album so that as Emma & Alex get older and have their own families they can look back and remember how it was when they were kids.

For me, the cover is always the starting point to my mini albums. It kind of sets the tone for me to get going on the inside. I cut a large snowflake from a piece of Sophisticates using my Silhouette as my first layer. I added a journaling card, a precision cut tree, a chip tree, a flag and stickers too! I wanted lots of dimension, so when I was adding my title I used High Five Alphabet stickers for most of the title but added chip letters for 'season' and then raised stickers on a couple using 3D foam for even a bit more height to match the flag. Oh, and of course I had to have some chunky glitter on the tips of my snowflake too.

For the circle pages I got out my tracing paper to create the covers for both the pages and the pull out and then got to work covering ALL the pages in the album; front, back and inside too. I always use a strong quick dry liquid glue and then sand off the edges to create a finished look to each page.

I gave Scott, Emma and Alex each a piece of white paper to write down what their favorite Christmas song means to them and included these on some of the pull out pages. I added the title of the song, whose favorite it was and the lyrics too.

A few of these pages have journaling from me about the photo and why it's a tradition in our house and of course inside the first page is a little bit about how Christmas began for Scott & I. I thought the kids would get a kick out of reading all about our first holidays together before they were born.

I love everything Bella and had such a blast using so many of the different embellishments throughout each page. I can't wait to have this out as part of our Christmas décor each year, and one day show it to my kids' kids (waaayy down the road of course).

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Christmas Love, Trees For Sale, North Pole, Candlelight, Gifts Galore, Quadrants, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Miniatures Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Asparagus, Sprinkles & Lace Oyster, Petite Pieces, Tall Tags, Calendars; Simply Simona Chipboard Alphabets: McIntosh; High Five Alphabets: Pink-Red, Green, Black-White; Flags: Love; Ciao Chip Versatile Elements: Trees; Designer Tape: Red Dot, Brown Pony Dot, Pickle Juice Dot

December Guest Designer: Stephanie Dagan

We are thrilled to introduce you to our November Guest Designer, Stephanie Dagan! She has worked her creative magic with our Christmas Wishes collection, our Sophisticates collection, and our Birthday Boy collection. 

My name is Stephanie Dagan and I live in France in Normandy. I have three children who are my main source of inspiration. I scrap for 8 years now always with the same passion. I have a fairly graphic style that has evolved over the years to be a little more charged. I have a passion for patterned paper, I love mix them together and play with colors that's why I often feel more at ease to create mini albums rather than do single page. I also discovered photography thanks to scrapbooking, and my Canon is never far from me. 

"Christmas Memories" mini album, by Stephanie Dagan.

When I discovered the whole Christmas collection Bella Blvd, I found everything so extraordinary that I could not bring myself to make a page. So I decided to make a mini album made of pockets in which I will put the photos at that time. I especially love the stickers because there are all sizes and so they adapt perfectly to any type of project. They mix perfectly together and give dimension to the project.

"Girls", by Stephanie Dagan.

This page was built from one paper of the Sophisticates collection "Tall Tags", I found the format of these tags so fantastic that I decided to cut them in order to layered them on the bottom of my page. I then positioned my photos above and to give a little more roundness to this page, I added some circles. The colors are just perfect for the theme. This is also what I like in Bella Boulevard collections, the colors are always so bright and fresh that gives lot joy to the layout.

"Hope You Have An Amazing Birthday" card, by Stephanie Dagan.

If I had more photos of my last birthday boy, I think I also made a mini album as this collection is also fantastic! So I made two cards trying to mix all the papers that I preferred. On one of the cards, I cut strips of paper that I stitched together, this is a technique I use a lot because it is well worth the papers and very easy to do. I keep the rest of the papers not far from me for the next birthday I will not fail to do lots of pictures.

"Start Each Day Like It's Your Birthday card, by Stephanie Dagan.

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Thanks Stephanie, for joining us here on the blog today and sharing your talents with all of us!

Bella Blvd & Basically Bare Team Up Week: Shellye McDaniel

Welcome to day five of our week long Team-Up with Basically Bare! We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Basically Bare's gorgeous mini albums and embellishments into our projects. And the Basically Bare designers have been busy mixing Bella's products into their projects. Let's see what our designers have whipped up for us today.

"Merry & Bright" mini album, by Shellye McDaniel.

When deciding on the theme for my mini album, I was immediately drawn to the Gears by Basically Bare and how cute they would be dressed up as snowflakes! I began by painting the kraft side of each cog with a white acrylic paint. I then glittered the fronts with a coarse marble glitter. I found it best to use Glue Dots when attaching the desired pieces on top of the marble glitter.

Using the Basically Bare Hipster Album, I began plotting out how best to display the different 'snowflakes' on the different pages. I wanted them to create a nice backdrop or a vision of snowflakes falling from the sky. To dress up the various envelope style pages, I layered two different patterned papers from the Christmas Wish Collection. The base papers were cut to a 7.75"W x 3.75"H; the inner papers were cut to 7"W x 3"H. I then machine stitched all of the base and inner pages together with a zig-zag stitch. 

At the ends of each page I added tabs using the corner stickers from the Alpha+Bits (I had two sheets of these stickers, so I was able to line the backs of each sticker with a matching sticker. You could also use a piece of scrap paper). The pockets make the ideal storage for journaling cards, extra photos or mementos. I kept the backs of the envelope pages simple by adding different Just Write Journaling Stickers. These are JUST WRITE for this! Adding a button or pearls gives it just a little pizazz without being too bulky.

I adore house shapes, so the Happy Little Houses were a must have on one of the pages! I simply traced the shape onto a Christmas Wish paper and cut to size. I then dressed up with outside with a happy door trimmed in baker's twine and a few punched snowflakes with pearl centers.

The inner-most page of the Hipster Album is a clear acrylic sheet...so many things can be done to decorate these. For mine, I simply went with a strip of Designer Tape that I neatly wrapped around the page. Finally, I matched up two sticker borders and applied them to both sides. You could also stamp onto the acrylic sheet using a Staz-On ink.

In finishing, I tied on bright matching ribbons to the comb on the album. Viola! I loved layering the pieces from Basically Bare along with Bella Blvd's stickers, buttons, Designer Tapes and Ciao Chip...it's Merry & Bright!

Supplies:
Christmas Wishes: Gifts Galore, Christmas Love, Trees For Sale, North Pole, Borders, Miniatures Stickers, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; Birthday Boy: Eat Cake; Sophisticates: Sprinkles & Lace Ice; Button Market: Pink Flowers, Masculine Mix, Fruit Punch, Snowflakes; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Red Dot, Gulf Dot

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GIVEAWAY TIME

We are doing a Christmas giveaway, since the holiday is sneaking up on us all very quickly! The prize package will include products from the Christmas Wishes collection along with coordinating buttons, designer tapes, and other embellishments. Value is over $100!!! Just leave us a comment and we will announce a randomly chosen winner on Monday.

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Now, head on over to the Basically Bare blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their gorgeous mini albums and embellishments, and our fun Bella products! Keep coming back to both blogs all week long, because we have a ton more projects to share with you.

We want to say a special thank you to Basically Bare, including all of the participating designers and the plethora of product that was sent our way from Basically Bare’s studios. It's such a pleasure to work together in this industry to create excitement about all of our products. We hope you enjoyed this week full of inspiration, variety and giveaways!

Bella Blvd & Basically Bare Team Up Week: Jenny Evans

Welcome to day five of our week long Team-Up with Basically Bare! We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Basically Bare's gorgeous mini albums and embellishments into our projects. And the Basically Bare designers have been busy mixing Bella's products into their projects. Let's see what our designers have whipped up for us today. And remember to check back in the afternoon, as we have our last mini album share. And there might even be a GIVEAWAY ;)

"Patch Memories 2012" mini albums, by Jenny Evans.

This mini album is photos from our family trip to the Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze. It was our first time going and I wanted to document it in a special way. The Thankful collection was perfect for it, with some other Bella products thrown in! The Basically Bare album is wonderful to work with! I loved the different type and styles of the pages, perfect for a fall themed mini. I added in some extra pages using the film strips and camera chipboard pieces. I love how this turned out, and so happy to have it to look back on!

Supplies:
Thankful: Perfect Days, Turkey Tracks, Homey, Bountiful, Our Spot, Borders, Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers, Chipboard Icons; Sophisticates: Spinkles & Lace Apricot, Chipboard Essentials Apricot & Bananas, Chipboard Essentials Asparagus & Pickle Juice; Family Tree: Leaves of Ancestry; Finally Fall: Miniature Stickers; High Five Alpha Stickers: Green, Blue, Yellow, Brown-Cream; Ciao Chip Everyday Elements: Clouds, Stars & Hearts, Family Words; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Pickle Juice Chevron, Teal Stripe, Pickle Juice Dot, Pony Dot; Button Market: Checkers, Masculine Mix, Outdoor, Merlot Flowers; Flags: Thankful 2

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Now, head on over to the Basically Bare blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their gorgeous mini albums and embellishments, and our fun Bella products!  

We want to say a special thank you to Basically Bare, including all of the participating designers and the plethora of product that was sent our way from Basically Bare’s studios. It's such a pleasure to work together in this industry to create excitement about all of our products. We hope you enjoyed this week full of inspiration!

Bella Blvd & Basically Bare Team Up Week: Wendy Wagner

Welcome to day four of our week long Team-Up with Basically Bare! We have a group of our Bella designers that have mixed Basically Bare's gorgeous mini albums and embellishments into our projects. And the Basically Bare designers have been busy mixing Bella's products into their projects. Let's see what our designers have whipped up for us today.

"Smiles Begin With You" mini album, by Wendy Wagner.

This was a super fun Team Up with Basically Bare. I love mini albums and I love my daughter, so it only made sense for me to create a mini album about my daughter. I tried to capture little pieces of her last 9 years in this album, and focus on the fact that she is 9 & ½. She’s a big girl, but she’s still my baby. I took some quotes from our favorite books and some from special songs, to make the album about her and me.

I distressed and inked the entire album, using the Kiss Me collection. It was perfect to reflect the love I have for my little girl. I used the basically bare spiral bound mini album, one canvas page from the Oh So Mini Ticket album, small Pennants, and Stack-a-Bellies Birds. 

I think my favorite page in this mini is the 'You are my Sunshine' page, which has been the song I sing to her in the morning when I wake her up! Thanks for taking time to enjoy my project! 

Supplies:
Kiss Me: Bouquet Kisses, Mustache Love, Love Notes, Flutter, True Love, Borders & Cute Cuts, Alpha+Bits Stickers, Just Write Journaling Stickers; High Five Alphabet Stickers: Piggy-Punch, Brown -Cream, Blue; Sienna Chipboard Alphas: Blueberry;  Ciao Chip Elements: Clouds; Designer Tape: Piggy Pink Stripe, Teal Stripe; Button Market: Feminine Mix, Wood Mix, Pink Flowers, Blues, Tie Dye, Gulf Squares, Hot Pink Flowers; Crochet Flowers: Juniper, Dahlia; Blooms a Bella: Rosa, Sole; Baby Blooms a Bella: Rossini, Azzini

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Now, head on over to the Basically Bare blog and check out what their Design Team has created using their gorgeous mini albums and embellishments, and our fun Bella products! Keep coming back to both blogs all week long, because we have a ton more projects to share with you.